Saturday, July 24, 2010

Fred's Bike

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mailbox. Fred wondered who in the world would put something in a green envelope and not address it to someone. He thought about buying a stamp and sending it to someone just for fun. But he was nearly to the park where all his friends were...

...playing soccer. Before he reached them, his next door neighbor, who just happened to be the 2nd grade bully, ran over to Fred and yelled, "Hey, that's my envelope! Give it back!" Fred got off his bike and took the envelope and ran as fast as he could to his friends. They huddled together and opened the envelope. Inside was a...

newspaper. When they looked at the date, a chill crept up their spines and made the hairs stand up on the back of their necks. The paper's publication date was a week away. That was not what had scared the boys, however. There, in bold over-sized type, the headline read...

"Local Boys Are Heroes Following Earthquake." But the subhead was "They help family of their fallen friend." There was a photo of the town with buildings fallen down, but no photo of a "fallen friend." Then they saw the name: It was Fred's brother, Randy. Randy had been ...

...playing in his backyard with a couple friends the afternoon of the earthquake. His friends scattered at the first rumblings of the ground. Little Randy dashed to hide underneath the wooden swingset. Only seconds later, as the rumbles of the earthquake increased, the tall oak tree in the backyard was uprooted and crashed into the swingset, trapping Randy there...

"That sounds great!" said Fred. His friends nodding their heads in agreement. "There's one condition." said Fred. "What's that?" said Spike."If you want to be our friend you have to stop being a bully." Spike was quiet for a moment. Okay,It's a deal! "Cool!" said Fred. "Now, lets save the library from a flood!"